Review: Darker Than Black ‐黒の契約者‐

This anime is brought to you by Pizza Hut. Not Sony Music or aniplex or whatever sponsor of the day you see at the start of an episode.

This is yet another assault on Nodame Cantabile’s provisional title as Best Anime of The Year 2007, coming from Pizza Hut-sponsored Darker Than Black. Will this corporate-sponsored title with one of the most blatant product placement advertising I have ever seen in an anime succeed where Lucky Star or Seirei no Moribito and other 2007 anime failed? No need to jump to the conclusion below, because the answer is a BIG FAT NO. Now, read on why this is the case.

Story:-The Tokyo as we knows it is no more, because it is now play host to Hell’s Gate where all hell breaks loose that appears out of nowhere. That gate seems to bring out another human race that is called Contractors. Contractors are companies that compete for government tenders humans with super powers and huge thirst to kill. Our protagonist Hei is one of those superhumans, and he and his colleagues are out to do their thing that only a Contractor can do…. filing road potholes.

After watching a good story in Seirei no Moribito, this anime is a great reminder how awfully uninteresting and unoriginal a Japanese anime can be. This is one of many average anime titles Japan pumps out every year. A typical sci-fi shounen title which may look different on the surface, but in essence Darker Than Black has no innovation whatsoever.

Anyway, the story by itself is not bad, and it has a decent ending with some hints of a new season. I wonder whether I should download a second season if it becomes available though.

Watching anime at work is what I also like to do. In fact it has been several years since I watched anime from home.

Character Design:-Character design here is actually good, with plenty of black hairs (as Japanese should have) to go around. To a certain extent, realistically it mirrors a typical demographic of modern-day Tokyo, of which I will not complain.

No typical shonen anime is complete without a talking pet.

Voice acting:-Well, it wasn’t bad, but not that good either. I can’t say anything positive or negative in this aspect. Let just say that voice acting here is ‘mundane’.

Music:-Again for several anime in a row, the OST is decent but none of the themes are any good.

No typical shonen anime is complete without a comic-relief.

Animation/Direction:-The animation is great and fluid all around, even in fast scenes. Maybe all 2007 anime are like this? I have not seen any 2007 anime that has bad animation as of yet. The action scenes are not choreographed as well as the one in Claymore or Seirei no Moribito, but it comes down to the very many occasions where the protagonist is simply too powerful compared to his opponents. Fights between equals are good in quality but sadly, there are not many of those.

The directing is simply average with virtually no moments where I can say WOW.

Conclusion:-6 out of 10. In no way those product placement advertisements affects the rating. Tengen Toppa Gurrenn Lagann will be next. If that one fails too, maybe I should watch some older anime before looking for another challenger for Nodame Cantabile.

The 2 powerful Contractors of which even our hero cannot get away from.